HAN_F_04 Enhancing Societal Cohesion by Civil Actors assuming On-site Responsibility

Aims/Research Questions

A basic assumption of the planned project is that social cohesion is not “just there”. Instead, it is a result of specific social practices in a territorially defined community influenced by both social and spatial contexts. These contexts include factors such as access to labour markets, educational opportunities or public goods, and benefits or burdens of infrastructure as well as sociodemographic and economic development trends, effects of political and administrative systems, and social welfare policies. However, these factors face far-reaching changes and are unequally distributed, which is observable both at the national level (e.g. between rural and urban areas or between East German and West German regions) and – to a much greater extent – at the European level (e.g. between regions in Western Europe and South-eastern Europe).

Assuming responsibility in the civil society is another influencing factor of local cohesion, and it links to sociospatial inequalities. Different concepts of assuming responsibility can reduce disparities and promote social cohesion. However, civil society actor’s activism can also catalyse inequalities and impair local cohesion. This is the case, for example, when opposing goals, rationales, and spatial representations result in conflicts, exclusion, and marginalization. Eventually, the perception of a socially and spatially disadvantaged situation can lead to passivity and resistance to change.

Against this backdrop, the project aims to analyse interrelations between (i) social and spatial contexts, (ii) the sphere of civil society actors assuming responsibility, and (iii) local social cohesion. A further aim is to compare results from national and international case studies exhibiting contrasting sociospatial characteristics. Based on the empirical results, we intend to provide recommendations for politics and practical spatial planning. This should enable practitioners to redesign or change local dynamics to positively influence social cohesion.

Thematic Reference to Social Cohesion

Having an empirical-analytical focus, the project refers to the overarching questions of RISC concerning prerequisites for, sources to, and threats to social cohesion. Specifically, social cohesion is seen as the dependent variable influenced by two interacting parameters: (i) social or spatial inequalities and (ii) assuming responsibility by civil actors. This line of thinking corresponds to the constitutive elements of social cohesion as outlined in the RISC heuristics: sociospatial inequalities comply with a specific aspect of socioeconomic factors framing social relations and influencing social cohesion, and the focus on civil society actors, their goals, spatial interpretations, identifications, and emotions refers to affective as well as cognitive aspects of social cohesion. Furthermore, we plan to transfer empirical results into policy recommendations, which will provide contributions to the overarching RISC research question regarding political recommendations for action.

The initial thesis of this project is that social cohesion practices differ between (i) urban and rural regions in Germany, (ii) between urban regions in East and West Germany, and (iii) between urban regions in different European countries. Therefore, we investigate the spatial contextualization of social cohesion, the conditions for success, and the threats along these categories (i–iii), explicitly including an international perspective. Thus, the project contributes to the international comparative perspective of RISC and likewise to one of the institute’s key questions. From a spatial perspective, it provides contributions to the overarching questions that can only be answered through international comparisons, such as the consequences of globalization for social cohesion.